Men's Lacrosse Weekly Release - Week 8

PRINCETON, N.J. -- In what turned out to be a pivotal
moving day on Saturday for several squads, the League's teams
squared off from Ithaca to Philadelphia in search of wins as they
jostle for position amongst the top-four places in the Ivy
standings.

Cornell and Harvard entered their game with unbeaten records in
Ivy play, but it was the Big Red that stayed that way and extended
the longest home winning streak in the nation to 14 games with a
14-10 win. Eleven different players scored a goal for the Big Red
as they moved to 4-0 in the League standings. The Crimson’s
Jeff Cohen netted three goals to move into first
all-time in the Harvard record books with 133 career goals.

Playing at Dartmouth, Yale seized an opportunity to even its Ivy
record at 2-2 on the year with a 13-11 win over the Big Green.
Overcoming a 3-0 deficit, the Bulldogs were led by attackman
Matt Gibson’s four-goal effort.

In Saturday’s other Ivy game, Brown posted its first
League win of the year by edging Penn, 11-10. Rob
Schlesinger's goal with 11 seconds left in the fourth
ensured the Bears came out on top in the back-and-forth affair.
Sam Hurster had three goals and an assist to lead
the Brown offense, while John Connelly and
Anthony Adler each had three goals for the
Quakers.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Yale senior attackman Matt Gibson (Point Lookout,
N.Y.) led the Bulldogs to a pair of wins last week as Yale won at
Providence, 9-6, and then posted a 13-11 win at Dartmouth. The wins
moved Yale to 5-4 overall and evened its Ivy record at 2-2 on the
season.

All told, Gibson scored seven goals and added an assist for an
eight-point week. In the crucial win over Dartmouth that moved Yale
into sole possession of fourth place in the Ivy standings, Gibson
netted four goals including a goal late in the second quarter that
gave Yale a 5-4 lead it would not relinquish. Gibson becomes the
first Bulldog to claim Ivy Player of the Week honors since
Brian Douglass did so on May 3, 2010.

Co-ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Freshman Matt Donovan (Morristown, N.J.) tallied
two goals and added an assist to help the Big Red defeat Harvard,
14-10, in a critical Ivy match-up. The rookie attackman scored and
assisted on Cornell's first two goals of the second quarter,
sparking a 4-0 run during that stanza to give the Big Red an
insurmountable 6-1 lead. He added his final tally with just over
three minutes to play in the contest, snapping a two-goal streak by
the Crimson that had cut Cornell's advantage to three goals.
Donovan was also named the League’s Rookie of the Week on
March 5, March 26 and April 2.

Co-ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Brown freshman attackman Nick Piroli (Black
River, N.Y) was once again a vital cog in the Bears’ offense.
He netted three goals in a 1-1 week for Brown that included a 10-9
loss to No. 20/19 Bryant and an 11-10 win at Penn. In the victory
over the Quakers, Piroli’s two goals proved pivotal in
staking the Bears to their first Ivy win of the year. Piroli, who
also had a goal in the loss to Bryant, also earned Rookie of the
Week honors on Feb. 27 and March 26.

THIS WEEK
Cornell, Harvard and Princeton all close out the nonconference
portion of their schedules on Tuesday night, and Penn also plays
outside the League. Riding a five-game win streak, the Big Red
welcomes rival and No. 14/13 ranked Syracuse to Ithaca, N.Y., while
the Tigers also play host to an in-state BIG EAST foe in Rutgers.
Harvard closes out its nonconference schedule at home versus
Quinnipiac. The Quakers will hit the road to play at
eighteenth-ranked Bucknell.

League play then resumes on Friday night when Brown plays host to
Yale in a 7 p.m. game. A win for the Bears would put them back in
the thick of the race for one of the top-four places in the League
standings - which qualifies a team for the 2012 Ivy League
Tournament. But after an 0-2 start, Yale just made it back to 2-2
in Ivy play and a win by the Bulldogs would be their third Ivy
victory in a row.

Then on Saturday afternoon, Harvard plays at Penn and Dartmouth
plays at Princeton. Harvard enters the game looking to bounce back
after suffering its first Ivy loss of the season last Saturday at
Cornell, while Penn is trying for its first Ivy win of the season.
After having the Ivy bye last weekend, Princeton will be looking to
match Cornell’s 4-0 Ivy record with a win, while the Big
Green travels south in search of a first Ivy win of the year.